Journey of the Great Warrior Activity Guide
18-SESSION PROGRAM, Ages 13-18 (Recommended Prerequisite: Living a Legacy Activity Guide.)
Journey of the Great Warrior recognizes the assets and barriers of marginalized youth. Using creative challenges, personal narratives, and the restorative environment of nature, it respectfully explores both effective and limiting survival strategies.
18-SESSION PROGRAM (Including 8 Nature Sessions,) Ages 13-18
Recommended Prerequisite: Living a Legacy Activity Guide
Using the symbol of the Medicine Wheel of the indigenous people of the Americas and the metaphor of the journey of a great warrior, this guide takes young men further into a holistic process of growth and transformation that includes four areas of human development: emotional/spiritual, psychological, social, and intellectual.
The journey begins by exploring marginalized young men’s challenges, strengths, and coping strategies formed after a premature loss of love and protection in the family and the natural world. A “journey of return” invites council members to rediscover a sustaining internal resource of protection, security and belonging, or “Home Base.” The journey continues to build upon individual and collective resources to reclaim or create dreams, develop goals, increase social and cooperative skills, and choose and apply transformative behaviors in their relationships and activities in order to overcome barriers and create lives of contribution, meaning, and connection. Group challenges include: the Great Warrior’s personal narrative, Trapped Inside the Dungeon - a cycle of addiction and exit strategies, Crossing the Bridge in nature, Vision Charting, The Voice of Nature, “Hardware-Software” and Personal Traits, Planning and Executing an Ecological Project, Role Play with a Leadership Style, and many more activities both indoors and in the outdoors to empower participants to recognize their interdependency and value within all of life’s systems- social, personal, and in the natural world.
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Session
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Theme
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Activity/Description
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| 1 | Renewing Our Council | “The Medicine Wheel Interview” |
| 2 | The Home Base | The Magic Box: Looking into our Home Base, Making the Council our Temporary Home Base |
| 3 | The Home Base (Nature) | The Earth Community as our Home Base |
| 4 | The Warrior’s Initiation, Power & Survival | The Story of the “Great Warrior” with self-charting and pair sharing, The Introduction Ceremony |
| 5 | Initiation, Power & Survival (Nature) | Solving the Secret Clues |
| 6 | Unveiling the Dark Side | Brief Discussion, Trapped Inside the Dungeon, Untangling the Knot |
| 7 | Unveiling the Dark Side (Nature) | A Monument to the Light |
| 8 | The Journey of Return | The Personal Inventory, Journey of Return Activity |
| 9 | The Personal Inventory, Journey of Return Activity (Nature) | The Nature Guide |
| 10 | Transformation of the Home Base | Transformation Cards, The Trust Circle |
| 11 | Transformation of the Home Base (Nature) | Gifts of Nature Walk, Planning an Ecological Project |
| 12 | Awakening to a New Power | Vision Chart, The Rise of the Great Warrior |
| 13 | Awakening to a New Power (Nature) | Crossing the Bridge, Planning an Ecological Project |
| 14 | Connecting with the Inner Self | Hardware-Software, Seeking Inner Balance |
| 15 | Connecting with the Inner Self (Nature) | The Voice of Nature, Planning an Ecological Project |
| 16 | Connecting with all of Life | Brief Discussion: Causes of Oppression, Role Plays – Interaction Styles |
| 17 | Connecting with all of Life (Nature) | Helping Mother Nature Recover |
| 18 | The Endless New Journey | The New Beginning, The Council as a Unified Force |